Second Texas Storm Kills 2 Children, Hours After Tornado Ravaged Another Town

Two children in East Texas were reportedly killed during a storm Saturday afternoon when a pine tree fell on a moving car where they were seated in the back seat. The children, ages 3 and 8, were pronounced dead at the scene, according to Angelina County Sheriff’s Department Captain Alton Lenderman.

Texas TV reports state the children were in the back seat while their parents were seated in the front of the car. The parents were not injured, according to ABC 13 from Houston. KTRK-TV also noted the storm had winds of 60 mph in Cherokee County, which is near Angelina County, where the fatalities occurred. There have been no reports of tornadic activity in this deadly storm.

The Angelina County Sheriff’s Office said there were other downed trees and power lines from the storm, according to CBS 11.

The storm that took two lives in Angelina County was a separate incident from the tornado that pummeled Franklin, Texas, late Saturday morning.However, the cells are part of the same system that developed in West Texas on Friday night and strengthened as it moved eastward through the state.

On Saturday night, the National Weather Service said the Franklin tornado, which tore up more than half the southern part of the city, was an EF-3 tornado with winds of 140 mph. Most of the 3,500 electricity customers in Robertson County lost power as the storm passed, according to KHOU in Houston.

Two children were injured and more than a dozen people were treated on the scene for minor injuries after the Franklin tornado.

KBTX in nearby Bryan-College Station reported that 40-50 homes in rural Robertson County had some kind of damage, and that more than 20 had been completely destroyed. Franklin Police Chief Terry Thibodeaux told KBTX it looked like a bomb exploded in the part of town that was destroyed.

The city is under a curfew from 8 p.m. to 7 a.m. local time, and Saturday night’s prom for Franklin High School had to be postponed.

The same storm system that dumped rain and pelted hail from San Antonio to Dallas, and through the Houston metro area moved through East Texas and Louisiana. Other states are feeling the wrath of the storm as well.

A tornado touched down in Warren County, Mississippi, according to WJTV, though no injuries were reported. The storm system will continue moving east through Mississippi and into Alabama — which had a deadly tornado last month — overnight Saturday and into Sunday morning. The system is expected to arrive in Georgia later on Sunday, which prompted the Masters Tournament to move up all tee times for the final round in hopes of finishing the golfing event before the storms arrive.

Senator Bob Menendez said he was "disappointed, but not surprised, that the Trump administration has failed once again to prioritize our long-term national security interests or stand up for human rights."